This invention relates to the field of lighting and illumination. More particularly, this invention relates to a technique to increase the efficiency of power electronics for light emitting diodes.
Since the development of the incandescent light bulb, electric lighting has become widely adopted and is considered one of the inventions which has had the most profound impact on human society. Lighting allows people to do many activities in the night hours which they would otherwise not be able to do without such lighting. Modern society depends on electric lighting.
Despite the success of modern electric lighting, there continues to be a need for improvements in electric lighting. For example, it is desirable to increase lighting brightness, improve efficiency, reduce power consumption, reduce heat output, and improve other characteristics of lighting sources.
LEDs outperform traditional lighting such as incandescent, fluorescent, or high intensity discharge (HID) lighting in power efficiency and or longevity. Although LEDs have been used as indicator lights, traffic signals, car tail lights, and similar applications, LEDs are generally not being used for general illumination due to a number of problems.
Some challenges to the adoption of LEDs for general illumination include the color or color temperature of LED illumination, brightness over time, power requirements, and high cost. Compared to incandescent and other lighting which use alternating current (AC) power, LEDs use direct current (DC) power. So, an LED lighting system need extra space to accommodate power electronics or power supply that converts AC power to DC power. In LED versions of incandescent lamps with form factors such as A, PAR, MR, R, BR, the need to accommodate the extra electronics is a major challenge.
Therefore, there is a need for LED lighting systems packaged with compact power electronics.